


The Long Road Home

by manhunter70



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Angst, F/F, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Memory Loss
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-15
Updated: 2017-03-15
Packaged: 2018-10-05 14:10:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10309988
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/manhunter70/pseuds/manhunter70
Summary: You would think that trying to find the love of your life would end in a few different ways. Finding them and living the rest of your life in bliss. Finding them and having your heart broken. Never finding them at all. Or finding out that they are dead. If only I was so lucky, I end up in prison with no memory of how I got there. With a mark on my hand that is sucking the life out of me. Oh and my wife just so happens to be one of the people who put me in here. Just fucking great, HOW CAN THIS GET ANY WORSE!!! I just had to say that didn't I.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first time writing, please help me out. I would love it if people commented and gave their opinion on what I could do better and any mistakes that are in there. If you have story ideas go ahead and suggest them, they most likely will not be added right away but I will go over them and if they work well with what I have planed I will add them. I can not say for certain that this will ever be finished but I will do my best to do so. At this time I have this planed as a series, this part will be until they close the breach, and what I will right next will either be the next part of inquisition or dragon age origins the backstory for this one.
> 
> Everything belongs to Bioware, just putting my own spin on their story.

“Uhg!!”

“Why is my head pounding like someone hit it with a hammer??”

Waiting for a few seconds for the pounding to lessen so I can concentrate on the noises that are around me. Listening carefully I can hear the sound of dripping water onto a stone surface, coming from my right is clanking/scratching sound, not sure what that is I try to hear the only other sound that is out there. Ignoring everything else I can hear the low buzz of conversation, though not loud enough for me to hear anything. 

Feeling around with my hands I try to feel out where exactly I am. With a sudden jerk on my arm it stops, and I feel metal digging into my arm. “Great I guys I am in some kind of prison”

Opening my eyes I immediately close them again, a splitting pain lances through my head as my eyes are overwhelmed by the little bit of light I let in. Waiting for a minute I try again. Enduring the pain for a few seconds it lessens after a few seconds and I can finally look around at where I am.

The first thing the catches my attention is right in front of my, there are four dingy stone walls with a heavy metal door in the one right across from me, with the only light in the room coming from the small barred window at the top of the door. 

Sitting up I stretch my arms and legs as far as I could without the shackles on my wrists and ankles. 

“Come on Alex think, how the hell did you get here?”

I try to review the last few hours, but every time that I think about it all that comes back is a giant blank black space, that does nothing but frustrate me more and more.

“Okay what is the last thing that I remember and what was I trying to do?”

…..Right I was trying to find the love of my life

“Hahahaha!!!” I burst out laughing, “It really is like myself to try and do something this simple and mess it up.”

I mean really who would have thought that looking for the love of your life would end up with you not remember the last 24 hours or so and in prison. You would think that you would either find them and live happily ever after, or have your heart broken, but no I end up in a dungeon, chained to a wall, and with memory loss, AGAIN!!!!.

HAHAHAHA!!!!

Clang!! Clang!! Clang!!

“Hay shut up in their!!!! And what the hell are you laughing about?”

Startled, I try to stifle my laughter and look up at the door and see a armored helmet with whole for eyes that I can not see. “Ha just laughing at my own situation, not sure what that is by the way mind telling me?”

Shaking his head, he turned around and shouted over his shoulder, “Just stay quiet”

“Can you at least tell me what day it is?”

“NO!!!”

Okay so the asshat was no help at all, now that I remember what I was trying to do, where was I? Thinking only brings up a giant black and a vague memory of a glowing white women. So either I am hallucinating or I encountered someone soul, seeing as I am a soul mage encountering the soul would be more likely, though I did hit my head really hard so I can’t count out hallucinations. 

Let’s go back even further, I had received a message from a friend telling me that the person that I was looking for was last reported to be by the side of the Divine Justinia and headed to a enclave that the Divine had called to try and stop the fighting between the mages and the templars. 

I barely remember heading out to The Temple of Sacred Ashes to try and talk to Divine Justinia to see if she would allow me to meet with Liliana, she did owe me a favor from a while ago, so she should have said yes.

Now that I know where I was headed their was a few options, I either got ambushed and knocked out on my way to the temple, went to a tavern and got super drunk, made it to the temple and went drinking, made it to the temple and got ambushed their, made it to the temple and the mages and/or templars started attacking each other and I got knocked out, someone attacked the enclave and I got knocked out, or some combinations of all of the above. So let's think through this, I do not think that the first 2 happened because I have the vague feeling that I made it to the temple, and any scenario where I got drunk most likely did not happen because I would at least remember the beginning of the drinking not to mention that I have not had a drink in four years. So that leaves just the last three or a combination of them. 

Ghaaa!

Before I could think through anything more a searing pain shoots up my left arm and a ethereal green light splashes across the room, the pain is too much for me to handle to my very weekend body, and darkness starts creeping into my vision and all I have time to do is look down at my left hand and see what looks like a streak of green plasma sparking across my hand, them the pain overwhelms me and I fall unconscious. 

\-------  
“She is fading we have to find a way to stabilize the mark on her hand or we will never no what happened at the enclave”said an unknown voice.

“She deserves to die for what she did”says another voice.

“I agree but if we do not find a way to close the breach then we will all die, she is our only clue now get the healer”the first voice said.

\-------  
Pain that is all I know, it is too much.

Ghaaa!!! Aaaaaaa!

I scream out as loud as I can, It seems I have woken up and fallen unconscious multiple times and it always because of pain, it has become the only thing I know. After what seems like forever I get enough concentration to actually think. Come on Alex you can get through this, think of Leliana let the memory give you the strength that you need. Muffled voices sound around me and try and pay attention and they slowly come into focus.

“...lped her all I can for now, if I am going to stabilize the mark I am going to need at least a day to find a way to do it. She will not last that long though without someone maintaining the barrier around the mark.”said a voice that I assume is a healer, i’ll just refer to you as healer from now on.   
“Do what you can i’ll get Cullen to suppress the magic in the mark to make it less powerful and by you time”said another voice, i’ll be calling this one Ms. Stupid, because it sounds like she is going to get a templar, and besides the possibility of a templar helping a mage, the suppression will not work. The mark seems to be tied to my body and is acting like a parasite, It is feeding off of my life energy every time it grows and is slowly killing me. If I understand it right the healer put a barrier around the mark that blocked all energy from entering or exiting that area, so it can’t feed off of me but it is not growing weaker so it only needs energy when it is growing.

“That will not work”said the healer. YAY someone is actually understands something around here. “If I am correct the mark is feeding off of her so the more it gets suppressed the more it will feed off of her to recover” 

Okay so not a full explanation but good enough. 

“We do not have another mage in a day’s journey to be able to keep up the barrier” Ms. Stupid says “And even if we had a mage here we do not have any other mage that knows enough about barriers to keep this up for any amount a time” Okay so maybe she is not stupid, she does know enough about her people to know their limits of what they can and can’t do. 

“That's not good, the only other thing that I can think of is to put as many regeneration potions into her as we can to keep her alive as long as possible so I can find a cure” say’s the stupid healer. Yes stupid healer, do they not have anyone that is competent at basic healing magic, I mean the very first spell every mage learns!!!!!! 

Seriously, I do not need regeneration positions, those only heal my body, and it is my lifeforce, my SOUL that is getting eaten up by this mark, and the basic healing spell reinforces the soul a little bit and would help way more!!!!!!

Crap they're not going to know that though are they, I only learned that in the last four years and the only reason I know is because I trained as a soul mage, so no help their. Well Because I can’t do anything right now but scream in pain and think that the people trying to save me know nothing, I’ll just fall unconscious again to get away from the pain. 

Before a lose consciousness the stupid not stupid women starts talking again“Well go and do that, i’ll go find Leliana and see if she has found anything interesting about our prisoner, It would help so much if we could get the mask of her face.” 

WAIT WHAT LELIANA’S HERE!!! But before that thought fully registers I am unconscious.   
\-------  
Aaaaah!!! 

A scream wakes. Could someone stop screaming please, I scream in my head. Wait why does it feel like I am the one screaming?? Okay calm down and stop screaming open your eyes and see what is around you. 

Figuring out that the cause of the screaming is my and the searing pain in my left hand, I put all of my willpower behind trying to stop screaming and get the pain under control. Okay breath in breath out, breath in breath out. Slowly my screaming stopped and I was able to get my breathing under control. The pain was still as bad as ever but my tolerance of it has seemed to have improved. After another minute the pain suddenly stops, and I am able to open my eyes and see what is around me. 

I seemed to be kneeling on the ground in the middle of a chamber, with prisons on all sides except for directly in front of my where there is a single door that was open showing a long passageway. Standing to my right were two people dressed in green uniforms with pieces of metal on top of the shoulders, knees and chests. They all also were wearing metal helmets, on their waists were hanging a short sword, and a dagger. Guards I guess, looking to my left I saw two more guards. 

Looking down at myself I see a dancing green light coming from my left hand, unclenching my hand I see what looks like a line of flowing green plasma in the middle of my palm, okay let's study this. As I reach into my mind for my magic, I can’t feel anything. Huh? I guess I was more depleted than I thought I should still be able to use my sight though. Searching a little further I finally feel that glimmer of light that has always represented my magic. As soon as I try to grab it, I get the feeling of someone of hitting me in the head with a hammer.

Okay so not magic for a bit. It seems that I burned out from using to much magic and will not be able to use any for a few days. Bring my left hand closer to my face trying to get a better look at the mark my hand suddenly lurched to a stop.

“Ouch!” I yell out. Why the hell can’t my hand higher and why is my wrist hurting. Looking down at my wrists I finally notice that there are shackles on them. Well don’t I feel stupid not noticing that I was changed to the floor for over 10 minutes. 

Hearing some footsteps coming my way, I look up. Walking down the hallway in front of me are two people, the one on the right is a little taller than the one on the left. The person on the left was wearing a set of metal armour with a very distinct coat of arms on it. Well at least someone is looking for the truth in all of this. The coat of arms was from the Seeker order, they are a group of people who work for the chantry that seek the truth no matter what. She has short black hair that goes to just past her ears, slightly slanted eyebrows, and on her right cheek is a scar that runs from the middle of it down her chin. The person walking next to her while shorter holds a little more mysterious and frightening presence, yet seems to exude a familiar presence. She is covered entirely in black and has a hood that is up and making it really hard to see what her face looks like. Over what I assume is her cloths is a coat that goes down to her knees, covering the coat is a thin layer of chainmail. The hood is part of this coat.

Looking closer at the armor I begin to see finer details, it is extremely well made. If I am not mistaken it looks like someone killed a dragon and then took everything it could from it and made a piece of art in the form of armor. Its mostly dragon leather stitched with its sinuous. Then someone took the scales melted them down and made a fine chanemale. Put it all together and you have an armor almost impervious to physical damage, the only thing a person would have to be wary of is the force behind any hit. And there's that nagging feeling like I should recognize this person again or at least this armor. 

THAT CAN’T BE!!! That is the armor that I gave Leliana or at least an exact replica. But seeing as it was a custom job with a custom design I highly doubt it. Seeing as there is only one of that armor in the world and only one person has it that is Leliana. Well unless she gave she gave it to someone else. But let's assume it's Leliana, if so than she should recognize me and help me out, if its not well they are going to die for taking that armor.

The seeker walks up to me standing as intimidating as possible and yells “Tell me why we shouldn’t kill you now. The Conclave is destroyed. Everyone who attended is dead. Except for you.” 

Okay she is actually pissed. Wait the conclave was destroyed?? If I was there how the fuck did I survive? For some reason although I know Lelianas there I get the feeling telling my real name would be a bad idea. “Well hello to you to, what a lovely day we are having my name is Andrea, who are you?”

The seeker stands there for a second with a shocked expression on her face, and right when she is about to talk again I say ”Just so you know I had nothing to do with that as far as I can remember, which is not much considering that the last thing I remember is heading to the Temple of Sacred Ashes.” Taking a breath I continue. ”I know that's not very helpful but besides that all I remember is seeing the soul of a person but I hit my head so I am not sure if that was a hallucination or not. Oh right back to the question, what is your name again?”

Both of the women just stare at me for a second before the women in black doubles over laughing. At the sound my heart skips a beat. That settles is that is Leliana I could recognize that laugh and the sound of her voice anywhere. 

Gasping out between laughs “My...haha...name is...haha...Leliana” Laughing a few more times before calming down. “This is Seeker Cassandra Pentaghast”.

Cassandra sighs heavily. “Okay now that introductions are out of the way” She leans down and grabs my left hand “Explain this”

Looking at the seekers face ”I can’t, it was there when I first woke up and so far it seems to feed off of my magic and soul at the same time, but it seems to have stabilized, hoping that was you guys because I do not want it to start again.” I look down at the ground for a second, I swear there is something I am missing. “Wait are you the person who suggested stupidly to use a templar to suppress it so I could die faster??”

Lesliana looks from me to Cassandra with what I am hoping is a troubled expression because I can’t see her face. “Wait what is she talking about?”

Cassandra sighs again ”It’s not what you think I thought that suppressing the mark would help stabilize her, but Solas told me it would just kill. I did not want her to die.”

YA RIGHT I scoff silently “Really? Because you could of had me fooled with how you came in here asking why you should not kill me”

Before the conversation could continue a giant boom sounds throughout the area, at the same time the mark on my hand sparks and I am wracked with pain. It only last a moment but it's enough to put me in a daze for a second. 

Shaking myself out of it I hear Leliana saying “...ed to go, i’ll be at the forward base Cassandra don’t kill her we need answers.”

Cassandra looks at the ground shaking her head. “I know that Leliana even if I am pissed I would not kill her until she is proven guilty”

Turning around Leliana walks out of the room. “What is going on?”

Cassandra walks up to me and unties my hands from the floor. “It would be easier to show you.” 

Cassandra picks me up and we walk through the building. Once we get outside I can see a small town milling about. In the distance I can see mountains with the same green glow shining on them that is coming from My hand. Looking up I can see a giant hole in the sky with green lighting around it. Swirling around the hole are clouds that make it look like a tornado is gathering. Coming from the center of the hole is a continuous stream of green light that goes somewhere into the mountains. 

I stand there stunned for a few minutes, until I hear Cassandra talking. “We call it the Breach. It’s a massive rift into the world of demons that grows larger with each passing hour. It’s not the only such rift, just the largest. All were caused by the explosion at the conclave.” 

Still staring at the breach it flares and begins the expand. When that happens the mark on my hand flares. I fall to the ground screaming in pain.

“Argh!!”

After a few seconds the pain stops and I become aware of what's going on around me again. Cassandra is standing over me offering me her hand. Grabbing it she pulls me up. “Each time the Breach expands, your mark spreads… and it is killing you. It may be the key to stopping this but there isn’t much time.”

“Ya it's eating the power of my soul up” grumble to myself. Looking at Casandra I say “ If you think it’s the key to closing the breach I would say that is a good bet, though I do not know if it has enough power to close up that thing in the sky, maybe the smaller one’s you were talking about but probably not the big one. 

Cassandra looks at me for a second before responding. “That may be but all we can do it try. Whether that’s possible is something we shall discover shortly. It is our only chance, however. And yours.”

“You're crazier than I though if you think that I would do this to myself.”

Cassandra looks at me with an annoyed expression “Why do you think I am not capable of common sense, I would never accuse someone of something unless I had good reason. But I do not think you did this not intentionally anyway. Something clearly went wrong.”

Okay maybe I judged her too hard, she probably had a huge amount of pressure from everyone to find who did it and when you are the only one to survive an explosion it is reasonable to assume you had something to do with it. “Okay I might be a little harsh on you, but you would be if someone accused you of something you would never do and was threatening your life every time you had heard her talk. But what if I am not responsible for what is going on?”

Cassandra considers me for a bit before saying “Someone is, and you are our only suspect. You wish to prove your innocence? This is the only way.” 

Looking around I see the people staring fearfully at the sky, others are on the ground crying hoping for something to happen that will make things better. There are also the people trying to help everyone they can. Off the my left is a mobile hospital, with just a glance you can tell than it is overwhelmed. There are maybe 4 healers bandaging and using herbs, to heal people, But there are so many patients that they have taken to making beds out of straw and putting them on the ground in a 50 foot circle around the tent that is the main area. 

Well Alex it seems that you have become responsible for saving the world again. Looking up at the sky I ask a silent question. “Can’t it be someone else's turn save the world, is it not enough to do it once. I have nearly lost everything once and just found my wife again after four years of her thinking me dead. Can’t i just have a break and be able to relax.” Looking at the ground I sigh “Guess I will just have to continue, and try to talk to Leliana, I mean why did she not recognize me?”

Walking over to where Cassandra had walked off to I stare at the sky for a second before talking. “I understand, i’ll do what I can. Whatever it takes to make sure the world keep turning.” 

“Let's go than” Cassandra says before turning around and starts walking towards a gate a little ways away. On the way the villager scowl at me and shoot hate filled glares. Some ever through insults my way. 

I turn my head towards Cassandra. She sees the question in my eyes. “They have decided your guilt. They need it. The people of Haven mourn our Most Holy, Divine Justinia, head of the Chantry. The Conclave was hers. It was a chance for peace between mages and templars. She brought their leaders together. Now, they are dead.”

As we approach the gate the soldier standing by it push it open while saluting Cassandra. “We lash out, like the sky. But we must think beyond ourselves, as she did. Until the breach is sealed.”

When we are outside the gate Cassandra pulls out a dagger walks behind me and cuts the ropes binding my hands. “There will be a trial. I can promise no more.” As I start to walk forward Cassandra stops me with her hand. “One last question before we go. Why are you wearing a mask and why can’t anyone take it off your head?” 

As she finishes talking I have a sinking feeling in my stomach. “I am wearing WHAT?” I shout. Reaching up to my face I feel around but can’t feel anything but my face, I reach back slowly dreading what I will find. My fingers come into contact with what feels like a hood for a cloak, reaching for the very center of it a feel a distinct piece of metal. “Well that explains why everyone assumed why I was responsible, this hood when worn up hides my face is shadows and no one can take it off. Well that's not true, Leliana should have been able to and have been able to see through the shadow effect.” Dread fills me when I realize that Leliana could not take off the hood or see through the enchantment. There is only one reason for that. It means Leliana does not love me anymore. Staring at the the sky I scream as loud as I can. “FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”


End file.
